Eighth Annual Kodak Awards Heralds Film's Bright Future

The eighth annual Kodak Film Awards were held Monday evening at the ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood, in a celebration of all things celluloid.

The event's jubilant tone required a brief reflection on a time when the outlook was not so sunny. Kodak CEO Jim Continenza described joining the company in 2019 as it was deep in crisis, harboring over $1 billion in debt. Internal conversations at the time pondered how film-centric they should strive to be: Is the film division a niche market primarily for hobbyists and film enthusiasts, or could it actually make money?

Everyone in attendance was thrilled when Continenza announced that seven years later, Kodak has more cash on hand than debt.

Kodak vice president and head of motion picture Vanessa Bendetti added that 2025 saw Kodak sell its most film stock since 2014. A recommitment to technological advances is one reason for the turnaround. “We were able to double our 65mm finishing capacity so that we could keep pace with Christopher Nolan,” Bendetti explained, sparking laughter from the audience. Perhaps only the scale of a Nolan production could require such an innovation.

Speaking with American Cinematographer, Panavision vice president of marketing and sales Jim Roudebush similarly noted its company’s commitment to keeping equipment maintained at state-of-the-art levels. He described the ASC Clubhouse as “a home away from home for us,” adding that Panavision is “happy to be in the family.”

Television production is a further driving force of the film renaissance, and Bendetti revealed that the Amazon sci-fi series Fallout shot 4.5 million feet of film over the course of its first and second seasons. The forthcoming third season of Euphoria is also the first narrative TV program to shoot significantly on 65mm. “If you're up for a TV show, please think about shooting film," Bendetti said, appealing to the many cinematographers in the room. "It feeds our factory, and we appreciate the Fallout team's commitment to the medium."

Sinners cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC’s speech centered around the importance of support networks, describing Sinners writer-director Ryan Coogler as “someone who champions the people around him. He leads with love and grace.” Durald’s fellow Academy Award and ASC Award nominees, Michael Bauman (One Battle After Another) and Adolpho Veloso, ABC, AIP (Train Dreams) were also in attendance. “I came here for the first time as a student for a masterclass," Veloso told AC. "To be back 15 years later as an ASC nominee — it's surreal."

Nolan was also on hand to present the inaugural Keighley Award to Patricia Keighley of Imax. Patricia accepted the honor on behalf of herself and her late husband, David Keighley, who served as Imax's first chief quality officer and supervised hundreds of features presented in the Imax format. Reflecting on his fruitful working relationship with the Keighleys, Nolan said, "David was my friend, my Imax mentor — incredibly knowledgeable, and a wonderful collaborator. He was the first person to take seriously, and ultimately enable, my mad dream of shooting Hollywood movies on Imax film.

“The last film [David] completed was Sinners," Nolan noted. "He did some incredible work on that, and I’m pleased to say that before he left us last year, he was able to finish supervising every foot shot on our upcoming version of The Odyssey."

Accepting the Auteur Award, Sentimental Value director Joachim Trier discussed how shooting film creates a positive atmosphere of pressure on set. “Something happens when that sound of a purring cat comes from the camera," Trier said. "The actors feel it. We all feel it. It creates a different type of focus.” Corey C. Waters, who served as director of photography on Chronology of Water — actor and filmmaker Kristin Stewart's feature directorial debut — echoed this sentiment. “That urgency is maybe the greatest gift that film has to offer — outside of the colors, which are unsurpassed,” he told AC post-ceremony.

Stewart, who was honored with the Debut Feature Award, admitted her acceptance speech was “very dramatic.” She paused before adding, “But I feel very dramatically about this subject, so I'm just going to commit to it.” Her remarks explored the ineffable qualities you only get when shooting on film, as she vowed to never shoot digital. “All of the things that we cannot say, we point to in our dreams," Stewart told the audience. "And our dreams become our films. I never want to record anything. I want to roll. I want to burn. I want to make pictures.”

Photos by Rodin Eckenroth, courtesy of Getty Images and Kodak Film Awards.